Photography by Bob Montanaro

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Southern Belle of the Landscape

At first it seemed like something entirely different. A much larger, stranger insect than the little beauty that it is. Probably due to the presence of false antennae at the rear of its wings coupled with the constant side-by-side, up-and-down motion of its wings which made the back look like the front of some larger, very active, fearsome bug when, in reality, it was just a little butterfly that has developed a scary masquerade to ward off predators. This is the compellingly named Southern Oak Hairstreak. A rather hirsute butterfly with an alluring appearance where hair in the insect world always seems an oddity.
Thank you to Ken Gonyo for helping to identify Satyrium favonius.